RUSH: “Rand Paul Calls for Investigation of Obama Officials Colluding Against Trump: ‘Worse than Watergate!’” This happened yesterday. Rand Paul “on Thursday called for an investigation about ‘high ranking Obama government officials’ who might have worked together to stop the election of President Trump. Time to investigate high-ranking Obama government officials who might have colluded to prevent the election of @realDonaldTrump! This could be WORSE than Watergate!’
“Paul’s call adds a high-profile voice to the chorus of Republicans who are calling for a special counsel to investigate whether Obama officials tried to stop Trump’s election…'” I mean… (sigh) You know, this is what frustrates me. Everything, call for an investigation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you’ve gotta do an investigation here, investigation there, and these things don’t happen in less than a year or 18 months, if that. ‘Cause in my mind there’s no doubt this happened! No doubt the exact opposite of what is being investigated now is what happened.
If there was any collusion, it was between Hillary and the Democrats and the DOJ and the FBI with a tinge of Russia thrown in with the Trump dossier, and this doesn’t take any detective work. They have as much as admitted this in books written about the Clinton campaign, the Trump dossier and how that was commissioned. And the fact that all of these deep state people have been lying and making up these quotes for a full year about Russian collusion with no evidence whatsoever. There’s no doubt in any of our minds what’s really been going on here.
The thing that’s most perplexing to me… Look, I don’t want to be redundant here as I covered this in the previous hour. The thing that’s been the most perplexing to me is so many people that I used to think were on my side have believed all along that Trump did collude or that there was a good chance he did. And you know why? Because even though these people claim to be conservatives, they just have a blanket acceptance of government institutions and whatever they say and do, and I don’t understand how there is no questioning of it or suspicion.
I know a lot of it is rooted in Trump hatred. I know a lot of it’s rooted in Never Trump, and just despite… Max Boot. Do you know who Max Boot is? Does Max Boot ring a bell to you? (interruption) Okay, who is he? (interruption) Well, yeah, he’s a columnist — former columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He’s part of the editorial board for a long time. He’s now an independent columnist. I think the syndicate, maybe the LA Times syndicate. But he served as a foreign policy adviser for three different presidential administrations, and he just tweeted this morning or yesterday that he wants the Republicans to lose the House in 2018.
He can’t handle this. He can’t handle this bogus president winning things like the tax cut. He’s insulted and offended that it’s Trump that is accomplishing these things. What did I tell you earlier this week? That among these Never Trumpers — some of these arrogant, intellectual, think tank type Never Trumpers — it’s not that they disagree with what Trump’s doing. Their problem is they don’t think he’s the one to be doing it, because he’s not smart enough, and he’s not sophisticated enough, and he doesn’t really know what he’s doing.
He doesn’t understand what he’s doing, and they don’t like putting what their agenda is — which of course has been arrived at by deeply intellectual pursuit. They don’t like their agenda being in the hands of some barbarous pig. So here’s yet another one. Max Boot! This guy used to send me emails of his stuff — “Hey, you might want to read this; you might find it interesting” — and now he’s tweeting that he actually hopes the Republicans lose the House in 2018! He can’t stand it.
He can’t stand what’s happening to the Republican Party. With what Trump’s doing to the Republican Party and these things, he can’t put his name to it. He doesn’t want any part of this. Can you imagine? Now, I realize… Wait a minute. I can go back as far back as 1992. I remember some of you people calling here thinking it would be wise to let Clinton win so the rest of the country could see what a bunch of bad actors the Democrats are. But you didn’t want to lose because you didn’t want your ideas to lose. You didn’t want Clinton to win.
You were hoping to expose the defects of the Democrat Party for ultimate, down-the-road victory. This is not that. This is actually seeking for the Republican Party’s defeat and the triumph of the Democrat Party, all because it’s Trump. Let’s go to the audio sound bites. Susan Page. She was on CBS This Morning. She’s still with USA Today. She was talking to Norah O’Donnell. We’re up sound bite number 3. Question: “As we look toward the midterm elections, we’re hearing now even the Republican National Committee is warning Trump White House there could be a bloodbath in the 2018 elections in part driven by women voters.”
PAGE: So it’s interesting, you know, I think Democrats are increasingly optimistic they will win control of the House, and Republicans are increasingly pessimistic. Some of that is driven by this new activism, engagement by women voters. We’ve seen that in the elections that we’ve had in the past year in — New Jersey and in Alabama and in Virginia. And also engagement of women not only as voters, but as candidates. In terms of policy, he’s had a huge impact. In terms of appointments to the federal courts, repealing regulations, this new tax bill. President Trump can count things he has succeeded in doing that he said he was going to do. But politically he is on a very perilous path, and that goes to the midterm elections and to this Russia investigation.
RUSH: All right, now, how many of you believe that? Just off the top of your heads. You listen to this and the premise of this is, “It doesn’t matter what’s happened! Trump knows and the Republicans know they’re in for a butt kicking in 2018. It could be a bloodbath. And you know what’s driving it? Women voters. Women are angry. Women are fit to be tied,” and we’re to believe that they’re really mad at Trump, that women voters really hate Trump. And those voters are gonna drive the midterm elections, and throw Trump out of office in 2020 and the Republicans out of the House and Senate in 2018.
And of course there’s this gratuitous mention at the end, “[P]olitically, he’s on a very perilous path, and that goes to the midterm elections and this Russia investigation.” So to Susan Page, everyone in Washington is convinced the Democrats are gonna win back Congress. Weren’t these all the same people who thought Hillary was gonna win the presidency? Weren’t these the same people who believed all the polling data that said that Hillary was gonna win the presidency? They are. They’re repeating the mistakes they made during the 2016 campaign. Well, the campaign, yeah, ’16 and ’17.
They’re repeating almost verbatim the same mistakes. They’ve already got Trump beaten. I told you earlier this week: They think they’ve won the House back, and they’re gonna be campaigning on two things. They’re gonna be campaigning on this tax bill. They think they can really make points by criticizing the Republicans for letting you keep more of your money. The Democrats think there’s some election to be won by promising to take your money back and giving it to Washington so that we can repay what the government has been heisted. And then Trump hatred. That’s the other element.
They think everybody hates Trump like they do. I’m gonna go on record December 22, 2017: Based on all that is known now, the Republican Party is not gonna lose control of the House, they’re not gonna lose control of the Senate — and, in fact, the Democrats may lose even more seats in the Senate. They’re getting so far ahead of themselves that they’re out walking a plank, and they have no idea how thin and precariously balanced it is. Here’s John Dickerson. This is also on CBS This Morning. This is a guy who hosts Face the Nation. Anthony Mason is the co-host here saying, “Tax cuts are the big achievement going into the New Year. How well has the GOP and the president positioned themselves for the midterm elections at this point?”
DICKERSON: It’s interesting, the president’s got a lot of achievements. The president’s got achievements on lowering regulations, on judicial nominations and all of that. But if you look at his approval ratings, I mean, they are at historically low levels. The Republican Party’s approvals are low. The hope among conservatives is that with this tax cut bill that will improve, but the support for the tax cut bill is, in some polls, under 30%. So they’ve positioned themselves extremely well with their base of their party. But the question is: How big is that, and how will that in turn pay off in the off-year election and will they turn out?
RUSH: Right. So here we have again somebody citing polling data. These are the same people that cited the same polling data that was dead wrong throughout the 2016 presidential election. They are devoted to these polls. These polls tell ’em everything. They’re making a mistake now, this guy says. “Yeah, and look. Some of the tax cut support numbers are 30%.” You’re not looking at that the right way. You drove those numbers down, Dickerson! You are the reason that people have such a low opinion of the tax cut bill.
But once it is implemented and once the growth happens and once the personal income starts rising, what do you think’s gonna happen to those poll numbers, Mr. Dickerson? You’ve driven ’em down so low there’s only one way they can go. This tax cut can only become more popular in the polls. Since you guys are so devoted to polls, what are you gonna do when the polls start showing the tax cut becoming more popular? Of course, that would require the polling being honest. They’ve been covering…
To show you how little they’ve learned, they’ve been covering Donald Trump now for 2-1/2 years, and they’re still basing the entirety of their analysis on Trump and his presidency on their polls, the same polls that guided them poorly and were wrong in November of 2016. Now, here’s one more bite before we go to the break. This morning on America’s Newsroom, Laura Ingle speaking with Representative Matt Gaetz.
He’s a Republican from Florida about the House Intelligence Committee questioning Andrew McCabe yesterday. Oh, this is another thing that happened. McCabe could not confirm anything in the Trump dossier. The guy is under oath, and he wouldn’t answer anything. Under oath, he had the chance to tell everybody what about this dossier’s true. Not with details, but he could have clearly indicated that there’s a lot there and they continue to pursue it. But noooo! None of that. And Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier?
When they put him under oath, his story totally changed, because once you say it under oath you open yourselves up for libel. We’ll get to that little tidbit in just a minute. Anyway, the question: “I was reading through some of the articles about what’s been happening here, and we’ve been hearing that some Republicans are dissatisfied with the responses you’re getting from Andrew McCabe, the deputy attorney general in the hearing yesterday.”
GAETZ: We’re not just dissatisfied as Republicans. Look, we’ve got an economy that’s growing. Illegal immigration has been reduced by more than half. We’ve got historic tax cuts. If we have a year in 2018 like we have in 2017, we’re gonna be tired of winning. We just want to follow the facts. We want to see if we’ve got the right systems and processes in place for reporting and transparency so that the American people have confidence in the FBI and confidence in the Department of Justice. And we can’t have a bunch of political autocrats there trying to undermine the duly elected president of the United States. That’s what we’re fighting for: Rule of law and fair democracy where we get to actually have the president we elected.
RUSH: Well, I can’t believe it! Look at this turnaround. All of a sudden, every Republican you talk to wants to defend Donald Trump and wants to go out and attack the deep state to one extent or another. Matt Gaetz here is saying, yeah, “We’re gonna be tired of winning.” There are a lot of people who think this tax cut is gonna propel this economy in ways people can’t forecast, and it’s not just the tax cut that’s gonna do that, folks. They’re gonna continue wiping out these burdensome regulations in all of these cabinet-level departments.
It’s not being talked about, it’s not being ballyhooed, and that’s good. It’s happening under the radar. But a bunch of leftists are leaving these agencies and a bunch of leftist regulations are being wiped out. A bunch of Obama-era regulations are being overturned and released. This is another reason why the economy is going gangbusters even before the tax cut was passed. One more, Stephen Moore. He was on CNN with Bill Weir speaking about this is this morning on the tax reform bill. Question: “The popularity of this tax cut is nowhere near what you would think it would be. Our latest, 55% oppose it. Only 45% in favor of the tax cut. Obamacare is more popular than this tax cut. What do you say to that?”
MOORE: On this issue of the polls, number one, as someone who worked on the Trump campaign, I don’t believe the polls too much (bursts out laughing) after they said that Hillary Clinton was gonna win 40 states! But second of all, if you look at those polls, it’s so interesting. What people think is that their taxes are gonna go up under this plan, because a lot of people in the media have been saying that. I have debated some people here on CNN who said, “Oh, middle class taxes are going up.” They’re not going up under this plan. Nobody ever lost an election for cutting taxes, but the graveyard is full of politicians who’ve raised taxes.
RUSH: That’s a good point, and the media has been telling everybody their taxes are going up, and people have believed it. The fact is 80% of taxpayers are going to get a tax cut. Eighty percent of Americans, 80% of people who pay taxes are gonna get a massive tax rate reduction. The last famous Democrat that ran for office promising to raise your taxes was Walter F. Mondull in 1984. He lost in a 49-state landslide.